what kind of music do you listen to? most people hate sony speakers, but those people seem to like rap. as for techno, sony's seem to have good highs, and the explode subs i have hit super hard. most people think they are 12s when i have turned up. i really like my whhole system and ive spent MAYBE $1,00 on the whole thing.

I listen mostly to rap/hip-hop with the occasional rock. I was looking at some brands and decided that I either want orion, infinity, eclipse, kicker, or jl. Now, out of these brands, which ones do you think would be the best? Or if you have a better brand in mind, just say that

Im most likely going to go with kenwood or pioneer for the deck, unless someone has another idea on a better choice.

I know what you mean with the xplode's hitting pretty hard. Friend of mine had 2 12's in his civic, and I'll just say it was loud.

for rap/rock infinity kappas and eclipse make kick ass speakers from what ive seen and hear...i really cant give much more advice cause i really dont know. i know what ive hear and hosse two seem to produce the best sounds with what you listen to.

For HU, its about features, looks, and price. From there it's personal preference or prejudice (had a bad experience, dead HU, etc).

All of those brands can give you what you want. Are you looking to go brand loyal? Full brand setup from amps to speakers? Because for what you could get with Orion or Kicker I would imagine you'd go slightly over-budget with all JL.

Capacitor....well, forget it for now. Figure out if you really need it afterwards. And unless you listen for long periods (1/2hr+) with the car off, you dont need an extra or even an upgraded battery. Just a solid working one.

Brand doesn't matter to me. I'd be happy with mix-matched components as long as they work nicely.

What's the deal with boss audio? Are they any good? Im thinking about going with 2 12'' kicker comp's in a ported box and infinity for door speakers since they are known for amazing sq. Dont really know what amp and headunit I want to go with yet.

So the stock alternator and say, an optima battery would be enough to power the system and all of the cars electronics?

well i have
200.00 headunit+siruis sat radio
215.00 front highs jl 5.25 xr comp. set
228.00 focal 6x9 (little high but sound bad ass and bought extra warenty)
225.00 2 12" jl wo 4 ohms
350.00 jl 300/4 highs amp
310.00 jl 500/1 subs amp
250.00 wiring and shit
i built my own box and i have 0 gaughe wire ran from front to back with a opmima yello top batt. so i say a total of 1800.00

What gauge of wire should I run? On my current setup(2 12''roadthunders and a cheap 400watt 2-channel) I've got 14ga from amp to subs and 8 or 10ga for the power wire. Do you think 10ga speaker wire and the latter size power wire would be good enough? Also, how many watts should the amp put out, rms, to power 600watts rms for the 2 subs?

I listen mostly to rap/hip-hop with the occasional rock. I was looking at some brands and decided that I either want orion, infinity, eclipse, kicker, or jl. Now, out of these brands, which ones do you think would be the best? Or if you have a better brand in mind, just say that.

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JL for subs for sure, and kicker would be my seciond choice for subs.

If you listen to mostly rap/hip-hop go with 12" but 10" subs have a crisper bass to them wich is great for rock.

What gauge of wire should I run? On my current setup(2 12''roadthunders and a cheap 400watt 2-channel) I've got 14ga from amp to subs and 8 or 10ga for the power wire. Do you think 10ga speaker wire and the latter size power wire would be good enough? Also, how many watts should the amp put out, rms, to power 600watts rms for the 2 subs?

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4 guage is all you will need. that is what runs most of the high power systems you see in the show cars and competition cars, so if its good for them it is plenty good for you. as far as the speaker wires go for the subs i would use 12 guage and for the high end i would go with 14 guage.

Alpine makes the best, least flashy head units I have seen that come with all the features I want: BBE, high voltages rca-outs, Ipod ready, simple function buttons, simple simple simple. I'd go with Alpine for amps too, just from personal experience. I liked MB Quart subs, And never had any complaint about my Infiniti Kappa Perfect 10, it delivered more than enough bass in my integra. But I am not a fan of blowing my ears out either, I'm more of an audiophile than an spl guy; I listen to a lot of acoustic and classic rock. As far as components, I know I sound like an Alpine fanboy, but their type R 6' components sounded really good compared to some of the other components I heard, but most high end components are very similar in sound quality; polk, boston acoustics, mb quart, all of them make good components. I stay away from RF, Sony, and JL, with exception of the higher end JL subs, like w6's.

the full system i WANTED for my car was about 2500 bucks. 2 MTX 10s, MTX 1200 Watt Amp, focal components and an eclipse 4 channel amp, cap and wiring. Those components and the new amps were gonna kill me.

I went to best buy, heard the new sony explode 3ways. they sounded good, so i have 4 sony 6.5 3ways, some OLD sony xplod 10s and a sony 9001. I wasnt planning on going all sony, but the products i got all had good reviews, and i liked the sound of the speakers.